


HakYona Week 2018

by blynninja



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Hakyona Week 2018, Other, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-29 15:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15732201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blynninja/pseuds/blynninja
Summary: I'm a little late to the party, but here's a collection of things for HakYona Week.





	1. Promises

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not completely satisfied with all of these, and some of them I started writing long before this week, but I figured they fit the prompts relatively well so I stuffed them in here. *shrug*

“I _will_ take that away from you,” she warns, nodding to the pen he’s been using to alternately poke her face and run through her hair.

“Promises, promises,” Hak chides, waving his unoccupied hand at his tiny friend.

Yona scowls at him, reaching to smack his arm, but he’s faster and grabs hers instead, grinning.

“You also promised you wouldn’t hit me again,” he smirks, leaning down into her space.

Yona’s face goes red but she doesn’t pull away, her eyes locked on his.

“And here I thought you’d enjoy a scalp massage,” Hak sighs, clutching the pen dramatically to his chest in offense. “I guess I’ll just put this away…”

Yona eyes him suspiciously, watching his hand the entire time he moves it to his pocket.

She opens her mouth to say something, but then clamps it shut like she’s thought better of the comment. Her face is still red, and if he’s not mistaken, she’s gazing almost _longingly_ at the pen.

“Hm?” He pauses, the pen halfway into his pocket before Yona’s fingers twitch in his other hand as though she’s trying to reach it.

Hak smirks, bringing his now pen-free hand up to Yona’s ever-flushing face and relishing the way her eyes go wide in surprise.

Her mouth opens and closes a couple of times as he steps in closer, his fingers running through her hair. He can feel her trembling, but he keeps his eyes on hers, waiting.

“What are you doing?” She finally squeaks out, so quiet and high-pitched he’d have missed it if he hadn’t brought his face closer to hers.

“This will be much easier without the pen,” he replies, the hand in her hair continuing to rake gently against her scalp. “I promise.”

A tiny sigh escapes Yona’s lips before she relaxes under his touch and Hak grins, pressing his lips to her forehead, her cheek, her closed eyelids.

Each one is an unspoken promise to keep her safe, to cherish her, and to not let her go.


	2. Teasing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here, have a random Cop AU.

“Hey, be nice to the stapler, babe.”

The endearment is out of his mouth before he has time to stop himself, and he’s not even sure where it came from.

Judging by Yona’s expression, she’s just as surprised as he is. Her fingers still around the stapler she’s been trying to pull open and fix.

“’Babe’?” she asks, blinking at him.

Hak shrugs, playing cool. “Sure. I figure if we’re pretending to be married, we should have sappy nicknames for each other for when other people are around. That’s a couple thing, right?”

Yona tilts her head at him, considering his proposal. “ I guess.”

“Oy, lovebirds!” Jae-ha calls from across the bullpen, and they turn to look at him.

As ever, Yona’s smile is genuine where Hak’s is strained. A conversation with Jae-ha is not his preferred start to the morning.

While Yona practically skips to Gigan’s office, bidding Jae-ha a cheerful “good morning,” Hak follows at more of a stalking pace, rolling his eyes at jae-ha’s smug smile.

“Let’s get this over with,” Hak grumbles, dreading this briefing.

It had made sense for him and Yona to go undercover together for this case, since they’d known each other and worked together long enough that their teamwork was the best in the department.

But undercover as a _married couple_? Hak wishes he’d shot Jae-ha before the suggestion had left his coworker’s mouth.

Yona had taken the parameters in stride, though, so Hak had decided to grin and bear it.

It’s the morning they’re supposed to begin their operation, and Gigan apparently has some last-minute wisdom or something, so Hak dutifully troops into her office.

He listens to the spiel, trying not to roll his eyes every time Jae-ha glances at him, and nods every time Gigan looks at him to make sure he’s paying attention.

Yona nods for practically the full meeting, eager to please as always. Hak sighs.

Gigan dismisses them with a wave and Hak practically leaps out of his seat, ready to get the show on the road.

“Ready, Princess?” He asks Yona, who scowls briefly at the childhood nickname he won’t let her forget.

The scowl is replaced in moments by a smile as Yona replies, “Ready when you are, babe.”

It’s Hak’s turn to blink as Yona actually _winks_ at him and heads for the door.

When he doesn’t immediately follow, she turns around and grabs his tie, tugging just enough to make his feet move.

They walk out of the bullpen to laughter and catcalls that end abruptly as Gigan steps out of her office to glare.

Hak trails along behind Yona, blinking at his partner and wondering when exactly she learned to flirt.

 _This is going to be a long assignment,_ he laments to himself, but the grin Yona shoots him as she glances back is almost worth it.


	3. Innocence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back to (mostly) canon timeline.

Yona knows very little of worldly things, having been rather sheltered growing up.

It gets frustrating, at times, when Jae-ha makes comments or shoots Hak suggestive looks that he thinks no one else notices.

Yona knows they’re referencing certain things that her tutors and her father had never particularly cared to discuss with her, but she doesn’t grasp specifics all the time.

She knows where babies come from, of course—she’s not completely oblivious.

She knows that Jae-ha likes to embarrass Hak by dragging him to brothels or even just talk about them, but she doesn’t know what actually goes on inside of such places (and she’s not sure she wants to).

She knows that Zeno was married, and sometimes she wonders, but doesn’t pry, about the physical aspects of that relationship.

She’s not sure when it started, but at some point she’d begun noticing how Hak’s eyes trail her when she walks away, or how it takes him a moment, sometimes, to register something she’s said.

Yona may be a bit sheltered, but even she notices the feelings that have begun to bubble up within her any time Hak looks at her a certain way, or when he compliments her on her improvement in archery or the sword.

Jae-ha has begun to give her curious, knowing looks that make her frown at him, earning herself a laugh and usually a pat on the head from her Green Dragon.

Zeno grins at her a lot more than usual, his eyes flicking between her and Hak a lot of the time in a way that makes her face burn.

Hak has started to notice, too, it seems, and that makes her stomach flutter with butterflies and causes her to keep away from him lest the nerves cause her to stammer or worse.

“Princess?” Hak asks from beside her, and Yona yelps, flailing wildly.

Her arm catches Hak in the face and she jerks away, the action causing her to lose her balance and go falling.

Hak catches her as easily as ever, one arm around her waist and his nose just inches from hers.

Yona can see the laughter in his eyes, masked slightly by concern, and her cheeks begin to burn at his proximity.

“—all right, Princess?” her protector asks as she clutches his robes out of instinct, her palms suddenly sweaty.

“I—yes, fine,” she squeaks, cursing the uncertainty in her tone and wishing Hak would help her upright already. He’s certainly taking longer than usual…

“You don’t sound too sure of that, Princess,” Hak drawls, frowning at her just a little—years spent watching him make faces at her have made Yona an expert at reading his expressions.

Her grip on his robe tightens a bit as she insists, “I’m fine! Now let go, please.”

Hak hums, keeping eye contact and instead dipping her backward a little further as she yelps in protest.

“Hak!”

“What’s that, Princess? You want me to let go?”

Hak smirks at her, loosening his grip fractionally as Yona’s eyes go wide.

“No!” she shrieks, clinging to his robes in an effort to bring herself more upright.

A chuckle rumbles through Hak’s chest, one she can feel even through his robes, and Yona sincerely hopes he doesn’t drop her.

She briefly wonders what would happen if she somehow tugged him down with her, but she shoves it away quickly, feeling her cheeks flush.

And then Yona finds herself being drawn back upward, Hak’s hands on her back and waist as he guides her to standing, and that familiar fluttering is back.

They’re close, almost certainly _too_ close, and Yona can feel Hak’s heartbeat under her fingertips.

He doesn’t seem bothered by their proximity, so she tries to squelch her nerves, but they’re still there as Hak’s hand shifts from her back to rest at the crook of her neck. His other thumb strokes her waist, and Yona wonders if he realizes he’s doing it. Months ago, he never would have let himself do such a thing.

He doesn’t seem bothered today, his eyes still trained on hers as the hand at her neck slides up to rest under her jaw, his thumb stroking her cheek.

It’s not unpleasant, and Yona realizes she’s stopped breathing at some point in the last few seconds as she drags in a deep breath.

Hak’s trademark smirk is still in place, but his gaze has softened, and Yona searches his eyes for some sign of what he’s thinking.

“Hak?” she works up the nerve to whisper, blinking at him curiously.

Her fingers are beginning to cramp up around his robes, but she doesn’t dare let go.

“Princess,” he replies quietly, the hand at her cheek sliding around toward her neck. It jostles her earring as it passes and Hak’s eyes dart to her ear for just a moment before his eyes burn back into hers.

Yona nearly squeaks in confusion, unsure of what’s going on.

She wonders if he’s going to kiss her.

She wonders, fleetingly, if she wants him to.

The thought flies away as quickly as it had come—she’s been waiting (anxiously, expectantly) for this moment for _months_ , since the first time he’d kissed her on the cheek.

Yona clears her throat, working up her nerve. 

“Hak.”

“Princess.” He parrots, eyes twinkling.

“Are you going to kiss me?”

Hak’s eyes pulse just a fraction wider as her question registers and the hand at her waist tightens just a little.

“Do you want to?” Yona continues, even though she’s pretty sure she knows the answer. 

“Do you want me to?” Hak asks, his voice quiet and almost hesitant.

Slowly, Yona lets go of his robes with one hand, letting it rest instead at the back of his neck, her thumb just brushing his ear. She feels him shiver just a bit and smiles slightly, looking at him fondly.

Before she loses her nerve, Yona pushes herself up on her toes, pressing her lips to Hak’s just long enough to close her eyes for a moment.

Hak’s breathing hitches and his body nearly freezes until she pulls away, blinking up at him curiously.

“Well, Princess,” he begins, eyeing her in a way that would make her nervous in any other circumstance, “I didn’t realize you even knew what kissing _was_.”

The flush comes back full-force and she resists the urge to smack him. Instead, Yona lets her fingers clutch a little more tightly to his neck and smirks triumphantly at his wince.

“Of course I know that much,” she protests, glancing away as she continues, “but I could probably stand to learn a little more.”

Hak’s chuckle is laced with affection as he tilts her head back up to look at him, his gaze less dangerous than she’d expected.

“I think we can work on that,” he declares before he pulls her up to meet him again.


	4. Battle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IDK, man. This one stumped me, but then I thought about DDR and just threw it together.

The flashing lights and roar of the crowd drown out everything else, and Hak is lost in this moment.

The tiny redhead _flies_ over the metal platform with a grace he can’t hope to emulate, and Jae-ha nudges him.

Hak nearly glares at his friend, but manages to adjust his expression to more of a scowl at the last second, raising an eyebrow at the green-haired man beside him.

“What?”

“You should challenge her next,” Jae-ha urges, grinning, and Hak rolls his eyes.

“As if.”

“Come on, Hak,” Jae-ha prods with a smirk. “I’ve seen the way you twirl when no one is watching.”

Hak bristles. “It’s not _twirling_ ,” he grumbles, now glaring.

Jae-ha holds up a hand in surrender, but the hand shoots up into the air a moment later and Hak realizes belatedly that the girl has stopped dancing and is looking around for another opponent.

Everyone else in the room takes a step back, and it’s just Hak and Jae-ha’s stupid pointing hand.

Hak glowers as the girl grins at him, a hand on her hip.

“Come on up,” she declares, gesturing to the platform beside her, and Hak sighs.

Jae-ha shoves him forward and he stumbles just a little before mounting the platform and facing the redhead.

“I’ll let you choose the song,” she assures him, smiling pleasantly, and Hak raises an eyebrow before scrolling through the menu to one he actually knows.

The music begins and the girl, whose name he still hasn’t heard, quirks an eyebrow at him but grins. He wouldn’t be surprised if she’s got all of these dances memorized.

Hak puts up a good enough fight, though, hitting a majority of “greats” on his side of the platform.

The girl somehow manages to squeak out a win, but it’s quite close, and the crowd seems to have grown since he stepped onto the platform.

His opponent grins at him and reaches for a handshake, which Hak accepts. Before he knows it, she’s tugged him closer and is declaring for his ears only, “You can challenge me any time, Lightning.”

“Lightning?” He asks, frowning.

The girl only beams at him, winking and shoving him gently back toward Jae-ha, who’s holding in laughter.

Hak throws the girl one more curious glance before smacking Jae-ha on the back of the head and heading for the door.

He’ll have to come back sometime and ask her what “Lightning” is supposed to mean.


	5. Desire

Hak can’t get rid of these _feelings._

And he _hates_ it.

They consume him, distract him, and the Dragons aren’t idiots.

Jae-ha is nearly always shooting him smirks or making comments that Hak tries to ignore.

Kija shoots him concerned glances but never speaks up, for which Hak is grateful.

Shin-ah doesn’t say much, but the way the Blue Dragon watches, Hak doesn’t doubt he’s picked up on it too.

Zeno, upbeat as he is, has his moments of seriousness and giving Hak significant glares or cryptic comments.

Hak’s tired of it.

He’s also tired of Yona being oblivious.

If she doesn’t figure it out soon, Hak’s going to go mad.

Or, madder than he is already.

The feelings only grow stronger with time and over the course of their travels, watching Yona interact with her people and grow stronger with each passing battle.

When he does give in and let himself kiss her, he makes sure they’re careful, controlled kisses, the gentlest of touches before he pulls away, before he can go too far.

It takes everything he has to not sweep her off her feet and kiss her senseless.

“Hak?” Her gentle voice breaks into his thoughts and Hak finds himself jumping, his nerves alight at her nearness, the sparkle in her eyes as she glances curiously at him.

“Yes, Princess?”

“Will you help me with something?”

Hak sighs through his nose, wondering what it could be this time.

The last time she’d asked this question, he’d ended up hauling a bunch of stinking Dragons to the nearest water source to bathe because Yona and Yoon couldn’t manage it.

But he’d never deny her a request and she knows it, so Hak plasters a passive smile on his face as he turns to her and asks, “What do you need, Princess?”

His jaw nearly drops as he realizes that she’s holding out her obi belt, but then he takes another look and realizes it’s much smaller. A ribbon, then, his brain supplies helpfully. Probably one of the ones Yoon had purchased on their last stop in a town.

He blinks.

“What?” is the only word that comes out, and Yona just smiles patiently at him.

“I can’t reach to put this in my hair by myself, and everyone else is busy, so…”

She glances away from him for a moment, fiddling with her ribbon, before meeting his gaze shyly again.

“What makes you think I can tie a ribbon?”

Yona tilts her head at him curiously, explaining, “You used to help me all the time when we were young.”

Hak blinks again, realizing she has a point. He’d watched her attendants weave ribbon into her hair so often that he’d once made a comment about how easy it had to be. From then on, he’d practiced with Min-soo, ignoring the younger boy’s curious expressions and insisting he should know how to help Yona do her hair, too.

Yona’s fingers land on his wrist and Hak nearly jumps, startled out of the memory.

“I haven’t done that in months,” he protests weakly. “I’ve probably forgotten.”

Yona fidgets before him, her feet moving to turn her around. “Okay, I guess I’ll just wait until Jae-ha or Yoon aren’t busy.”

Hak’s heart sinks and he reaches for her, tugging her back toward him with a grunt.

“All right, I’ll try. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’ll probably be a mess.”

Yona beams at him and Hak sighs, plucking the ribbon from her fingers and motioning for her to turn around.

He tugs her down to sit on a fallen tree, standing behind her and gathering her hair in his fingers.

Her hair isn’t nearly as long as it was the night they’d fled Kuuto, but it has grown a little in their time away from the castle. Hak finds that his fingers still remember the motions of threading the ribbon into her hair, and it’s actually not that bad when he’s finished.

He tugs at the end of Yona’s hair when he’s finished, resisting the urge to spin her and kiss the top of her head instead.

Yona doesn’t even protest and he wonders what exactly is going on.

“Thank you, Hak,” his princess declares, running a hand over his work. “It feels right.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he replies, sitting down and leaning back on his hands.

Yona’s hands land between his arms, her face inches from his and her knees straddling his.

Hak nearly topples over backward but covers up the panic with a grumbled, “What do you think you’re doing, Princess?”

“Thanking you properly,” Yona replies quietly before her lips are on his cheek, and Hak freezes.

“Pr-Pr-Princess?” he stutters, wincing as she leans back to sit on his legs, a strangely smug smile on her face.

Hak finds his voice again. “If you’re not careful, Princess, you might regret that.”

Yona presses a finger to her lips in thought and then declares, “No, I don’t think so.”

_What?_

Before he can get another word out, Yona leans back into his space and grins before she presses her lips to his, her fingers trailing up his chest to his jaw.

Hak finds it hard to breathe and even harder to resist her determination.

Before he knows it, one of his hands is in her hair, brushing the ribbon he’d so carefully braided in, as the other rests on her back and draws her even closer.

Yona doesn’t seem to notice or care that he’s messing up her hair, shifting closer to him and curling one hand into his hair as the other clings to his robes like she’s afraid of letting go.

When Hak finally forces himself to pull away, Yona’s face is red but she doesn’t look angry with him.

“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do that,” she whispers, her gaze shy, and Hak nearly topples over backward.

“Yona,” he breathes, taking note of the way her eyes go wide at her name from his lips before he pulls her into a hug, peppering kisses across her scalp.

“Me, too,” he whispers, and he feels the smile through the fabric of his robes as Yona nuzzles closer, her lips brushing his collarbone in a way that almost undoes him.

The ribbon he’d woven in earlier falls out of Yona’s hair and he glances at it curiously.

“You realize you just made me ruin all my hard work?” he asks with a frown, letting Yona loose enough to tip her head back and grin at him.

“You can fix it later.”

Hak hears a Dragon screech as he drops his mouth back over hers and pays it no mind. He’s waited long enough for this; the Dragons had better get used to it.


	6. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Originally a sentence prompt: "We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Started this one months ago and got stumped on it. This prompt thing made me go back to it and try to finish.

They had been travelling all day, and the sky had grown steadily darker.

The others had set up camp and were getting ready to sleep for the night, but Yona was still outside, watching the clouds roll in.

Hak kept glancing at the clouds, and then back to Yona, wondering how long she would stand there in the rain.

“We’re in the middle of a thunderstorm and you wanna stop and feel the rain?”

Yona spun to face him, her dress twirling in the rain.

“I haven’t been able to enjoy the rain since that night.”

Hak’s mind flashed back to the night she meant: Yona, cowering in the courtyard, staring up at him with tears in her eyes.

He hadn’t realized that storms still had that much of an impact on her, but it did make sense when he thought about it.

Come to think of it, Yona always seemed antsy during storms—not necessarily during quick showers of rain, but during thunderstorms she was more closed off, often huddling inside the tent with Yoon or carefully clutching Ao against her cheek, seeking comfort.

Hak sighed, running a hand over his face.

Why hadn’t he noticed it before?

He’d never really hated storms, per se, but he preferred to stay inside where it was dry in downpours like these. Getting soaked to the bone was not his favorite thing.

But for Yona, he would endure it.

Carefully, he picked his way across the grass between them, hoping not to step in any puddles.

Yona looked up at him curiously as he stopped near her, blinking at him.

“What are you doing?” She asked, frowning at him.

“Making sure you don’t get swept away,” Hak replied evenly, returning her frown.

Since the beginning of their journey, Hak had wanted nothing more than to keep Yona safe. He’d been determined to keep her out of harm’s way, even if it meant hiding her in Fuuga.

But she’d insisted on coming with him, and this crazy adventure to find Ik-su and the Dragons had begun.

He’d also never wanted to kiss her more than in these last few months.

Maybe a positive experience in the rain would help her move past the terrible one?

Sure, he’d kissed her forehead that night toward the beginning of their journey, in a downpour not unlike this one.

But she’d been exhausted and asleep then, not staring up at him with bright eyes like she was now.

Did he dare?

He’d almost done it, that night at Ik-su’s, he remembered. But Yona had been so stuck on Soo-won that he hadn’t been able to close the gap between them.

Now, her eyes shining bright in the rain, her head tilted up to smile softly at him, he wanted nothing more than to wipe the terrible memories from her mind.

Before he could talk himself out of it, Hak had stepped even closer, leaving virtually no space between himself and his princess.

She blinked up at him again, confusion clear on her face, and Hak lifted a hand to her cheek.

“Hak?” she asked, his name muffled by the pounding of blood in his ears. “What are you—”

He didn’t let her finish, silencing her question with the gentlest kiss he could manage in the moment.

Yona’s eyes pulsed wide as she froze in his arms, and he nearly let go of her and walked away.

She breathed his name this time, the tension leaving her body, and Hak nearly shouted for joy.

When her fingers slipped around his neck, he nearly collapsed, pulling away to catch his breath and stare at her, wide-eyed.

She was blushing like mad, but she looked … content, he decided, and it was all he could do to refocus and listen to what she was saying.

Or not saying, rather. Her mouth was opening, but no sound was coming out.

That was just fine by him, Hak decided. He smirked, running one hand down Yona’s side to rest at her hip as the other found its way to her neck.

She stared at him, the blush crawling all the way up her face, but didn’t resist as he kissed her again.

Yona pulled back only far enough to glance down at the ground, embarrassment clear on her face as she confessed, “I’m not—I don’t—I’m not very good at this.”

“You’re saying I _am_?” Hak asked, amused. He hadn’t made a habit of kissing that many girls, no matter how much Jae-ha insisted on tricking him into brothels.

The blush finding its way to the roots of Yona’s hair was answer enough and Hak chuckled.

“You’ll learn,” he promised, grinning brazenly and resisting the urge to wink.

Yona nodded slowly, her gaze hopeful, and he tightened his grip on her waist.

“I think thunderstorms are beginning to grow on me,” Hak observed, grinning.

“You said you came out here to make sure I didn’t get swept away,” Yona said quietly, and he watched her curiously for a moment as she continued, “but you’re not doing a very good job of it.”

Her eyes darkened, her eyelids drooping a bit, and Hak shivered as her fingers found their way into his hair.

“Oh?” was the only thing he could ask, the need to kiss her again far too strong for him to think of anything else to say.

“Hmmm,” she hummed absently, reaching up to kiss him with a fervor that nearly knocked him off his feet.

“Princess, you’re shivering,” he observed quietly when she finally let him up for air.

It was as though she’d finally noticed her trembling fingers and the numbness he could see spreading through her, releasing him to wrap her arms around herself.

“That’s not going to help,” Hak assured her, trying desperately to keep the crudeness from his tone as he continued, “but a change of clothes and huddling in the tent will.”

Yona blinked at him again and Hak sighed, adjusting his arms so that he was leading her to the tent.

They never should have stayed out that long in that downpour. Yoon would kill him if Yona ended up sick. Thankfully the boy genius had decided to sleep in the dragons’ tent tonight—had probably fallen asleep in there discussing Kouka’s history with Zeno or something—so Hak steered Yona to the smaller tent, determined to get her into dry clothes as soon as possible.

She paused when she realized what was going on and Hak groaned. Now was not the time for her to be shy.

“Princess, you need to get out of those wet clothes,” he insisted, prodding her.

Yona hummed a whine, her face flushed with embarrassment and cold, as far as Hak could tell.

“I’ve seen you naked before,” Hak reminded her, trying not to picture those moments. “I _will_ undress you myself if I have to.”

The warning came from nowhere, but Yona glanced at him sharply, as if she’d finally realized what was going on.

“No! I’ll—I’ll do it myself,” she declared, raising trembling fingers to her dress.

Hak sighed heavily, brushing her hands away as he tugged her wet dress away from her skin, ignoring her protests.

“You’re shivering,” he insisted, clasping both of her hands in one of his and pausing to stare hard at her.

Yona quit struggling, but she didn’t stop whining, and Hak realized her skin was growing hot, too hot to be due to just the discomfort of the situation.

His free hand flew to her forehead and Yona squeaked even as she swayed on her feet.

Hak cursed, catching the princess around the waist before she could tumble to the ground.

“You should have said you weren’t feeling well. We should have come in from the rain earlier,” he chided, scowling.

“But you looked so happy,” Yona argued quietly, and Hak frowned.

“That’s no reason to make yourself sick!”

Yona pouted at him, and Hak sighed, going back to working her out of her wet clothes. He tried to be quick about it, and it helped a little that Yona had grown too tired to fight him.

Her teeth were chattering by the time he threw her wet clothes into a corner and Hak shrugged out of his coat, wrapping Yona in it.

With no prompting, she curled into him, and Hak sighed.

His princess would be the death of him, he was sure.

Especially when Yoon found out Hak had been the reason for Yona’s fever this time.

He scowled to himself as he watched Yona fall asleep, clutching his robe and snuggling closer, the heat from her fever nearly overwhelming in the tiny tent.

At least one positive had come of this ridiculous evening: Yona didn’t look terrified of the storm as she fell into sleep, a slight smile on her face.


	7. Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slightly AU (or UA)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a little turn I didn't plan on, but hey. It also turned into eight pages, so.

Hak finds the words after he turns 10, scrawled on his forearm in reddish pink. They confuse him at first, until he talks to Mundok.

His grandfather tells him that it means he has a soulmate, and the words on his arm won’t necessarily be their first words to him, but they will be significant words nonetheless.

So Hak waits.

He knows Soo-won doesn’t have any words yet, or he didn’t when they’d last played together, and he’s pretty sure Yona doesn’t have any, either, so he keeps quiet around them. He wears long sleeves to cover the words, and only shows them to his little brother and a few of the other boys in Fuuga, because if he doesn’t tell _someone_ outside of his grandfather he’ll explode.

Every day for years, he waits.

But the words don’t mean much until after he turns 18.

After Soo-won takes King Il’s life and title, and Yona’s trust.

After he and Yona flee, spending days on the run before Hak decides they must go to Fuuga.

After he’s given back his title of general and has decided to leave Yona here, where she’ll be safe.

“But I want you!” pours from her lips, and Hak’s blood runs cold, everything inside of him feeling like he’s about to explode.

The words that he’s longed to hear for eight years are coming from his tiny, annoying, and altogether crazy princess.

The realization makes him sit down, hard, to process what this means.

And then he gives in, laughing at himself in the process, and they set out for this priest his grandfather believes can help them, somehow.

And Hak watches Yona carefully, wondering if she has words etched on her skin, and whose they are.

Surely they’re his if they’re there, he insists to himself over and over. Surely.

Instead of words he sees small symbols appear as they listen to Ik-soo, and the timing is all too convenient—they’re going to find Yona’s soul _mates_ , because apparently, she has more than one. 

Great.

So perhaps she’s his, but he’s not hers, Hak reasons. That’s happened, he knows.

And he tries to make himself believe it, to not be so upset over her four marks. They’re not words, so surely that means something different, he reasons with himself later.

Yoon throws him funny looks after he joins them on their journey, but Hak ignores the kid, and the pretty boy genius takes the hint, thankfully.

The jagged white lines on Yona’s wrist take on an aura as they near what’s supposed to be the Hakuryuu’s village, and then flat out _glow_ when Kija gets near them that first time.

Hak waits for it to happen again, but it seems to be a one-time thing, and he’s grateful. Having to endure that blinding light every time Kija got too close to Yona would have driven them all nuts.

The little blue symbol on her cheek that Hak’s never been able to put a name to takes on a glow when they reach what is supposed to be the Seiryuu’s village, so they know the villagers are lying when they deny the Dragon’s existence.

Yona comes back from the strange hidden cave practically glowing, her hand stuck over the blue mark and her eyes wide.

Hak figures that means that she’s found the Blue Dragon, and eventually she does convince the boy to join them, and even gives him his name: Shin-ah.

The green wings on Yona’s leg glow brightly enough that Hak can see them through her dress, and Yoon nearly faints.

They’re near Awa when it happens, and despite the twists and turns of joining the pirates in fighting against Kum-ji’s operation, they convince Rokuryuu Jae-ha to join their ragtag crew, and Hak has to sigh at Droopy Eyes’s attitude.

Almost as soon as they leave Awa, the yellow circle at Yona’s collarbone begins to glow, and they’re startled to find the Oryuu is right nearby.

Eventually he, too, joins the crew, and Hak sighs.

All of the symbols on Yona’s skin have glowed, all of her soulmates found, and Hak has to wonder what it all means.

He still wonders, sometimes, if she has his words on her skin somewhere, and watches her carefully any time he speaks to her, just to see if she reacts any differently.

When she hands him the necklace, telling him it’s a gift for _him_ , that bright smile on her face, he’s utterly floored.

“I will treasure it,” spills from his lips as he grips Yona’s hand and stares at the ground, unsure of what he’ll find in her eyes.

He imagines her blinking at him as he releases her hand and watches her shadow sway for a moment, like she’s unsure what to do next.

“Good night, Princess,” he says quietly, looking up as Yona blinks at him.

“Goo-good night, Hak,” she squeaks quietly, turning so quickly that she almost falls over.

Hak lunges on instinct, catching her around the waist before she can right herself--or hurt herself, whichever comes first.

She’s tense in his arms, her face warming, and Hak wonders why for a moment before Yona shoves away from him and heads back to her room as if she’s on fire.

He stares after her, confused, before finally deciding it’s time to go to bed.

X

Yona is still jumpy when he sees her in the morning, though she does a relatively decent job of hiding it.

Not good enough, though.

The Dragons keep giving him funny looks, which Hak alternately ignores and returns with glares.

“Princess?” He ventures to ask, approaching her cautiously as she’s trying to help Yoon with laundry.

Yona jumps a good foot in the air, shrieking, and Yoon sighs heavily, shoving her toward Hak with a look that demands they resolve this. 

Hak grimaces but nods, setting his hand on Yona’s shoulder to guide her away from the group.

She resists at first, but a quiet mention of carrying her instead gets her to fall into step beside him, looking everywhere except his face.

“Princess,” he says when they’re out of ear shot of the Dragons, “what is going on?”

“Nothing!” Yona answers, too quickly and without meeting his eyes.

Hak frowns, taking hold of her wrist and turning her until she’s facing him again.

“You’ve been acting funny since last night. Tell me why.”

It’s not a request, and Yona flinches, her fingers twitching in his grip, but Hak doesn’t let go.

She still refuses to meet his eyes, her gaze bouncing from his arms to above his head, to something behind him, and back to his arm, where it lingers for an extra moment.

Hak frowns, wondering if that could be it.

He releases Yona gently, holding his hand in front of her to make sure she doesn’t turn tail and run, and then reaches for his sleeve, watching her face.

Hak pulls his sleeve up to reveal the pinkish text on his arm, the echo of her words from those months ago.

Yona’s face goes as red as the words on his skin, her eyes not leaving his forearm.

“Is that it?” He asks, cocking his head. It can’t be. Not with how strangely she’s been acting for the last twelve hours.

Yona glances around furtively, like she’s afraid of getting caught at something, and then loosens the belt that secures her dress.

Hak inhales sharply, wondering just what she’s doing, until she tugs the neckline away from her chest to reveal his words from the night before, black as night on her porcelain skin.

Time freezes.

Hak stares.

How long has _that_ been there?

Certainly not from the start of their journey—he’d have seen it any time she changed clothes or bandages around him.

Yona lets the dress drop back into place and time restarts, her face still pink.

“How? When? What?” Hak stammers, reaching impulsively for her chest and then withdrawing as Yona backs up a step.

“Sorry, Princess,” he breathes, dropping his hand and taking a step back himself.

“You haven’t _always_ had that, have you?” he asks, watching her expression. “You can’t have. I’d have seen it.”

Yona pulls her dress back into place with trembling fingers and Hak resists the urge to take hold of her hand—or worse, run his fingers over those words.

He waits, impatiently, for her answer, and when it comes he nearly faints.

“They showed up last night. After I gave you the amulet,” Yona says quietly, peering up at him cautiously.

“How is that possible? I’ve had mine almost my whole life,” Hak stammers, trying to reconcile the timing. “Ever since…”

“Since what?” Yona asks, caution morphing into curiosity.

Hak blinks, bringing a hand to his head.

He’s had the words since he turned 10. After meeting the princess.

She’d been eight, he remembers, and they’d had another one of their dumb little fights. But after, they’d sat together in one of the gardens, watching the sunset in comfortable silence.

He’d found the words as he was getting ready for bed that night.

“The… The first time we really watched a sunset together,” he finally explains. “I was ten.”

Yona blinks, remembering. “The night I told you I wanted you to stay and watch the sunset?”

Hak’s jaw drops as he remembers the conversation, and the four words that had adorned his skin ever since.

Could it be that they’d been from that conversation, and he’d just blocked out the significance of the phrase? After all, she hadn’t stopped talking at those four words, so perhaps they hadn’t registered in his head as the right ones?

Maybe soulmate marks appeared _after_ the significant phrase was spoken? 

Surely Mundok must have mentioned that, though!

Hak thinks back to his grandfather’s explanation of soulmates and realizes that probably, he had tuned the old man out after the word “soulmate,” too excited about the word to hear the rest of Mundok’s explanation.

That would explain why Soo-won hadn’t had a phrase yet, and why Hak had spent his entire life waiting to hear the words when they’d already been spoken.

He rakes a hand through his hair, down his face, letting out a sigh that turns into laughter.

He knows he looks ridiculous right now, but he doesn’t even care.

Yona’s hand lands gently on his arm, pulling his attention back to her concerned expression.

“Hak? Are you all right?”

“I waited almost _ten years_ ,” he replies haltingly, “for someone to say the words that you already had.”

Yona blinks at him and Hak indicates the words on his arm as he explains, “They showed up the night you said you wanted me to watch the sunset with you. But I didn’t listen to Mundok’s explanation, and I thought they were words someone would say to me in the future. I waited eight years for you to say them again.”

Yona doesn’t say anything, only runs her thumb across her words on his arm, and Hak breathes, “I wasted so much time wondering…”

“So, all this time,” Yona begins, and he gazes at her, “you knew that I was your soulmate, and you didn’t say anything?”

“I never saw words on your skin, and then the Dragons’ symbols showed up and I thought maybe I was just supposed to be your guardian or something, like I’d promised your father,” Hak explains. “And I made myself accept that. I was going to live with that arrangement because I knew I had your words.”

“And you thought I would have already had yours,” Yona interprets, sighing. Her thumb doesn’t stop tracing her words on his skin.

“Mhm,” Hak hums in agreement, leaning in to her touch as his eyes linger on the spot where he knows his words hide.

Yona shifts uncomfortably but pauses in rubbing his arm to clutch his hand instead, pulling it up to rest over her heart, the fabric of her dress doing nothing to hide the way her heart is pounding under his fingertips.

Hak grins and opens his mouth, but before he can utter a syllable, Yona claps her free hand to his mouth, glaring at him through a blush.

“Don’t you dare say what I think you’re going to say,” she warns tremulously, her eyes narrowing as Hak laughs and chooses to run his tongue over her palm, hoping it reminds her of the honey incident in Awa. He’d been unobservant and carried away then, but today he doesn’t feel like holding back.

Yona squirms, her face going redder as she stares at him incredulously, but she doesn’t remove her hand. Perhaps whatever she thinks he’s going to say is worse than this feeling?

Her fingernails prick his cheek and Hak abruptly stops, freezing at the sensation.

Yona doesn’t seem to notice his expression, or maybe doesn’t realize what her fingers are doing, and Hak finally drags his free hand up to gently pry her hand away from his mouth.

“Careful, Princess,” he warns lowly, “or you might get more than you bargained for.”

Yona blinks up at him dazedly, the blush beginning to fade to that pink shade he loves, and he pulls her hand up to rest at his neck instead, her fingers just brushing his scalp.

That done, Hak brings his hands to rest on her waist and chin, holding her so that she stares, still dazed, up at him, tucked firmly against his chest.

He lets himself get lost in the moment, searching her eyes for any sign of trepidation before he tugs her up to meet his lips, pouring years of ignored and trampled-on feelings into the action.

A surprised squeak is all Yona utters before she relaxes, the hand at his neck digging pleasantly into his scalp as her other hand clutches his robes.

Her fingers bump the amulet she’d given him and he feels her trace its string, sending a shiver through him as she trails up his collarbone and back down, her hand resting over the gem.

He tugs her closer still, the hand at her chin moving to mirror hers in his hair, and he grins at the noise it coaxes from her.

Yona shifts in his arms, her hand moving from his chest to join the one in his hair, and Hak breaks the embrace, breathing heavily.

Yona whines, a noise he files away for future reference, and blinks at him innocently.

“Hak? Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” he breathes, running his thumb along her jaw. “I just… I let us get too carried away. Sorry.”

Yona hums, her hands falling from his hair to his chest, toying with the amulet’s string. “You did warn me…”

“Plus I have a feeling that the Dragons will come looking for us any second,” Hak says ruefully. “I’m kind of surprised they haven’t yet.”

Yona frowns slightly, her mouth scrunching into a pout, and Hak curls his hand back under her chin, his thumb running along her lips.

Right on cue, a throat is cleared behind them, and Hak turns his head to stare at Jae-ha.

“What, Droopy-Eyes?”

He doesn’t release his grip on Yona, which he knows Jae-ha notices, but the Green Dragon waves a hand flippantly, explaining, “Yoon wanted me to tell you that breakfast is ready.”

Hak hums his acknowledgement, holding Jae-ha’s gaze with a warning glance, and their companion turns on his heel to head back to the others.

Hak turns back to Yona, sighing as she tries to pull out of his grip.

“We should join them,” she says decisively, and Hak leans into her space once more to kiss her again, coaxing that whine back out when he pulls away, slipping his hand around hers and linking their fingers.

“If you insist,” he sighs melodramatically, squeezing her hand, and Yona smiles as she tugs him along behind her back to their friends.


End file.
